Fixer
by SeungSeiRan
Summary: Unfortunately, he happened to be the handy type. Kaoru x Haruhi x Hikaru.


**Hi! It's my first fic in the Ouran section so concrit and feedback would be much appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC.**

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"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU!"

It was a cup shattering as it hit the floor nearby, he was vaguely sure of. Inside the bubble called a music room, the world had been reduced to Haruhi and Hikaru, with him gawking on the sidelines as usual. The girl's porcelain skin flushed, Hunny-sempai's echoed squeak of surprise, Kyoya's words of reproach, minor details surrounding and reverberating alternatively on and off the space occupied by them. He must look like a statue, he thought. A mute and hopeless statue, never mind how much the words she screamed out cut his skin like a hot knife on lukewarm butter.

He thought he saw tears, pooling in her eyes, sparkling like crystal beading. How did he manage to notice tears, he wondered, as he watched his brother unclench his fists and jaw. Obviously, Haruhi had had enough. The door was slamming with a resounding crash before anyone knew it.

Tamaki was striding up to them, the demand for an explanation on the crest of his foaming mouth. Hikaru clenched his fists again and mumbled something along the lines of "… so touchy, annoying" and Kaoru would have to watch him through the screen of an actor making light out of the drama in another performance scheduled for the delight of another girl with the same fantasy to fulfill.

He asked Hikaru if he would apologize to Haruhi after school and his brother wiped off the expectancy on his face with a smirk of his own. "Why should I be the one to go? She started it by getting so worked up."

So Kaoru found himself alone in a familiar neighborhood, not exactly the most unpleasant of areas but certainly not a place he would have trudged into by choice. Of course, he _did _have choices too as Haruhi had reminded him but he wouldn't have had any at all were it not for his brother and the current emotional entanglement of a triangle they had gotten themselves into.

"Who says choice has anything to do with duty?" He asked her at the door of her snug apartment.

"Kaoru-san, you didn't have to do him any favors by being the one to apologize _for _him. If he cared at all, it would be him instead of you here."

Her reasoning would have caught him off-guard. But he'd prepared in advance this time.

"Hikaru may just be one of the most stubborn people I know but he's not infallible. He was upset because you saw right through his act."

"Act?" She glanced up at the rumbling clouds. "You'd better come inside. There might be a thunderstorm…"

"No, it's alright. I'm not supposed to be here anyway." His feet remained firm on the door-rug, refusing to obey gravity and sway.

Haruhi sighed, a soft, almost impatient, sound. "Kaoru…"

"He _is _sorry. But he's obstinate too."

When she still stood there, staring, daring him with her eyes to come closer, he called it a day and politely took her leave. He didn't even notice the raindrops trickling down his shirt collar as he walked his way home in deep thought.

~*~

"What's this?"

"The telephone." Kaoru replied. Hikaru tutted, an eyebrow arched.

"I _know _that. What's it for?"

"To call Haruhi."

"I won't apologize until she does."

"I'm dialling her number now, okay?" Despite the little voice in his head protesting at the top of its puny lungs, he had done it. Seven numbers and a zone code.

Ranka's effeminate tone soon enveloped the tinny silence over the line. "_Moshi-moshi_! Fujioka residence and may I know who's speaking?"

"Kaoru from school. I'd like to speak to Haruhi-chan please."

"Just a minute."

Immediately, Kaoru placed a hand over the receiver and glared at his brother sprawled languidly on the bed in their room. "_Hurry_!" he hissed.

"Now?!"

"Haruhi speaking."

He ignored the feverish drumming of his own pulse. "Ah, Haruhi? So sorry to disturb you at this hour but Hikaru has something he'd like to say to you."

Kaoru then turned round to glare at his gaping mirror image who'd appeared beside him in the nick of time and added, "Now."

Without a word, he handed him the phone and left the room.

_Please... don't screw this up._

~*~

The next morning, it was still raining outside and Kaoru was glad for that. A full day of sunshine would have spelled out mockery for him as clear as light. He wasn't sure how last night's intervention had concluded and frankly, he kept this thought to himself, he wasn't sure that he'd liked to know anytime soon. He'd chosen to sleep in one of the guest rooms for once and had lain awake listening to the sounds of water running through pipes. Worst of all, he'd remembered Haruhi telling him about the crickets near her house chirping.

"_It's almost like they're playing."_

He knew that the moment of truth would arrive eventually. He _knew _that he would enter the class-room, see the secret look that passed between them as he took his place, hear the softest of greetings and _know _that peace had transpired. All because of him, _all because of him._

He felt happiness. And regret. He felt sick, ill, nauseated by what he'd given up and then he'd see the glow on his brother's face and feel the same things all over again except that he'd regret that he'd ever felt regret in the first place. Haruhi seemed in better spirits too, more lighter on the eyes than yesterday afternoon when she'd stormed out of the music room. Everyone was happy, Hikaru was up to his old sly tricks in no time and he should be grateful for that.

He tapped his pen against the desk.

_Pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat._

It sounded like the raindrops smashing into the windows outside.

_Pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat._

It sounded like a million little crickets were having a whale of a time, dancing about to their hearts' content.

_Pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat._

It sounded like his heart shattering. Piece by insignificant piece.


End file.
